Alan Rapp

The Fabelmans

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Fabelmans
  • IMDb: link

Steven Spielberg‘s semi-autobiographical Hollywood version of his childhood ends on a high note with one of the best scenes of the year (which I certainly won’t spoil for you here). The journey to that moment takes a little longer than it should and feels a bit like a greatest hits album rather than one coherent narrative, jumping around to important moments in the life of Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle & Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord) which would mold him into the man and filmmaker he would become.

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Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
  • IMDb: link

Disney’s live-action version of Pinocchio from earlier this year felt redundant and unnecessary. A shadow of the original animated film based on the classic story, the new version failed to capture much magic at all. Released only two months later, Guillermo del Toro‘s stop-motion version of Pinocchio breathes new life into the story you already know setting the Italian tale during the 20th Century when a grieving father’s wooden recreation of his son is brought to life. 

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Strangely Familiar World

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Strange World
  • IMDb: link

Opening with heavy pulp-themes before shifting into a story of fathers and sons set against an unremarkable 4os or 50s sci-fi background, Strange World, much like Pixar’s Onward (which also set sights on parental issues in a fantasy-sci-fi setting) is more underwhelming than anything else. While not a bad film, Strange World is simply okay thanks more to vibrant visuals of the hidden world discovered by our characters than the characters themselves or the plot they get wrapped up in. Without its visuals, Strange World would be as forgettable as many sci-fi films of the era it pulls from.

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Leverage: Redemption – The One Man’s Trash Job

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Leverage: Redemption – The One Man’s Trash Job
  • IMDb: link

The team targets a plastic exporter (Joshua Bitton) who has been dumping waste in local waters and threatening local fishermen who attempt to bring his crimes to light. Rather than targeting his wrongdoing, or attempt to bring it to light, the script gets a bit overly-complicated and takes a hard right turn after the discovery that our baddie of the week is also smuggling high-end antiquities. (Why not just make him a smuggler to begin with rather than adding the dumping storyline which feels like a tacked on feel-good bookend to the story which is, at best, only marginally connected?)

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Leverage: Redemption – The One Man’s Trash Job Read More »